Fair warning that you’re not getting much of a recap. But then you didn’t get much of a game.
You’re not getting much of a recap because I want this game out of my brain as quickly as possible, and sulking about the outcome for an hour or three or six will neither help with that process nor make me feel any better.
The Mets? Luis Severino looked a little flat, the defense was sloppy at the wrong time, and the hitters did nothing early against Spencer Schwellenbach and then had not so much as an iota of luck against Schwellenbach, Joe Jimenez or Raisel Iglesias late. Meanwhile, the Braves took extra bases, made some eye-popping defensive plays and got some breaks. Seriously, Ramon Laureano had a ball glance off the barrel of his bat toward the hands before making slightly better contact further down, a double-tap that gave it just enough kinetic energy to clear the infield for an RBI single. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before, or that I ever want to see it again.
When something like that happens you get the feeling it’s not your night — and there were other unwelcome portents, such as Jose Iglesias starting off the game by getting hit by his own batted ball in fair territory. The Mets looked tight after months of playing loose and joyous ball — maybe the off-day wasn’t a good thing for them, though the fanbase certainly needed it after the emotional Ragnarok of Sunday night.
Until the Mets play again — and more on that in a moment — we will now endure an extended remix of Horrible Things Happening to the Mets in Atlanta in September. SNY gave that ball of sticky suck a push by showing us (in gloriously grainy standard definition) Jay Payton trying to advance to third against Andruw Jones with Mike Piazza on deck back in 1998, a reminder that the Mets’ unhappy history in Atlanta now covers two different millennia. You shouldn’t have, fellas — no really, you shouldn’t have.
I’m sad and annoyed and yes, I’m anxious — those are the Braves, after all, so hard to kill and now just a skinny game behind us. But for Chrissakes, let’s not human-centipede our ancient fan traumas into the players’ bloodstreams. Jay Payton is 51 years old; the majority of Tuesday night’s starting infield wasn’t even born when he slunk back to the dugout that night trying to think of a place to hide from Bobby Valentine.
2022 is a lot more recent, of course, and current Mets bear the scars of that one. But — and maybe this is just me bargaining with myself, the baseball gods and any other entity that’s listening — at the moment it feels different.
2022’s balloon got popped when Starling Marte got hit in the hand in Pittsburgh, and the washout against the Braves felt like the last sad sigh of escaping air. This year’s incarnation of the Mets has already been through hell and somehow survived. They’ve taken plenty of punches but popped back up after every one, smiling imperturbably like one of those blow-up bop clowns.
And now we get the added complication of the weather: Barring some meteorological miracle, no one is going to be playing baseball in Atlanta on Thursday. And the most optimistic way to describe Wednesday’s forecast is “not as bad as Thursday’s.” Why MLB isn’t packing both these teams onto a charter plane for Dallas or Cincinnati or some neutral site is beyond me, but then a lot of things MLB does these days are beyond me.
Anyway, the Mets got punched. But I get the feeling they’ll pop back up.
Hey, ya gotta believe, right?
SNY loves the Braves and has endless graphics honoring their continued success.
at least they didn’t follow up the ’98 clip with kenny rogers walking andruw jones in ’99!
i needed the mets more than ever that season!
If I thought I could endure it I’d watch the replay and see how many balls the Braves fouled off vs Severino with 2 strikes. Sevvy wasn’t at the top of his game but they didn’t hit him hard much either. But he sure couldn’t come up with the out pitch either.
Five runs shouldn’t be a death sentence but it was tonight.
Tomorrow’s game probably doesn’t happen – no idea why MLB isn’t doing something to address the weather – but a Peterson-Sale matchup doesn’t look any worse to me than Megill-Wheeler did.
Turn the page.
Meaningful games for like 18 teams in late Septemeber in front of home crowds is MLB’s game plan and they’re stickin’ to it.
From what I gather, the Braves preserving this series’ games at home was the overriding factor. So no neutral site. And for related reasons, they maintained the fiction of the regularly scheduled games rather than move around the game times in Atlanta.
My assumption is that they will play a doubleheader on Monday, if necessary.
Because of the way I swing (or something), I have, on several occasions, double hit the ball coming out of a sand trap. Unsurprisingly, it has never worked out for me as well as it did for Laureano.
“My assumption is that they will play a doubleheader on Monday, if necessary.”
That would be a pretty big handicap for whichever team gets into the playoffs (or both if AZ tanks the rest of the way and the series is for 5th/6th seed). Using up two starters and eliminating them from the WC series?
They should have moved today’s and tomorrow’s games. At least they could have plugged in a 1 pm start time today. Not that things look great even then but better than at 7 p.m. Game times get moved last-minute to account for TV but not a hurricane?
Not that possibly missing Chris Sale breaks my heart.
I agree with all of what you said; I just offered what I think will be MLB’s “solution”.
1—Right!
2—I thought it was against the rules to bat the ball twice.
3—If Thursday’s game gets rained out, MLB could do what it has done previously. Hold the teams over on Friday, and then play a Doubleheader Saturday against the regularly scheduled team.
I asked yesterday, before the game, WHY Severino was moved up, Quintana moved way back and Peterson getting a start over him? Sevy (way over his innings load in recent past) gets no extra rest after giving up 3 in 6 innings vs. Phils….Peterson bombed by Phils in last start….Quintana hottest pitcher in league coming off 2-hitter for 7 innings….Only Mendoza explanation I saw was: somehow Quintana has basically been lucky (some stat that reflects fielding behind him) and Peterson has pitched as well or better (reminder, just bombed by Phils).
“WHY Severino was moved up, Quintana moved way back and Peterson getting a start over him?”
Severino being moved up was so he could pitch Sunday if needed. I don’t have the answer to the rest of your question.
“Peterson bombed by Phils in last start”
He gave up 4 earned runs in a little under 4 innings. Not great but basically the same as Severino last night. I wouldn’t call that getting bombed.
sevy had trouble getting guys out, but damn! alvarez all but barrelling into him on that dribbler was a horrible pivot! reminded me of a younger pete going after every ball playable by 2nd baseman, leaving no one to cover first.
as if his inability to block wild pitches didn’t have me annoyed enough!
and yes, MLB is inexplicably ignoring a problem they’ve had days to solve!
UHG!
They’ve got to cut back on Alavarez’ Ritalin Rx.
I’m old enough to remember a time that, if you wanted to beat the Braves, all you had to do was walk Dale Murphy four or five times.
I miss those Braves.
Just saying.
harder team to hate with aaron on board too.
and they were in the NL west to boot.
post lays out ‘NIGHTMARE SCENARIO’ with rainouts looming.
i don’t really like the sound of that!
From 2023:
“MLB got creative with its solution. Arizona’s series in Chicago was pushed back a day and will now run Tuesday through Thursday. That allows the Yankees to make up this game on Monday since they were off. First pitch will be at 1:05pm ET.”
Postponed today and tomorrow.
What a buzzkill, man.
You know something, the karma felt really bad for these next 2 games vs ATL.
Sale would have killed Peterson, etc.
This way, we sweep MILW and KC takes 2, and we are in without needing any of the Braves games on Monday.
(Unless they play a Doubleheader on Friday and push back the MILW series.)
Yeah this postponement could actually be a blessing.
And if we play on Monday, we avoid Sale, Fried, and maybe even Schnellenberger (sic) if he goes on Sunday.
And if we somehow have a 1 game lead over ARIZ after Sunday, we clinch over them as well. We have the tiebreaker over them and could then afford to lose both games on Monday (before we go out to SD defeated and exhausted).
yup, this kills cobbco’s momentum. agree with eric’73. it felt like mets could continue rolling downhill. team regroups, lindor gets more time to heal.
yes: we can make this work! (it worked for the cubs on a shorter time-scale)
had the braves gotten the beat-down embarrassment they so richly deserved i’d be bummed…
LGOMG!
Supposedly the Braves nixed the idea of changing the schedule because they expected big crowds.
I’d bet no game is played tomorrow – 10 inches of rain expected in Georgia. So Atlanta will probably have a doubleheader Saturday then another with us Monday. Even if they get a WC they won’t have a starter with more than 2 days’ rest when the WC series starts.
Chris Sale lucked out. :)
My biggest hope is to see Lindor as DH Friday. Our designated hitters have given us nothing and it keeps two of our hottest bats in the lineup.
I’d love to see Lindor DH’ing, but only if he’s really ready. I keep thinking of poor David Wright and his broken back. If Lindor gets two or three at bats and (heaven forbid) develops spinal stenosis, he can spend the rest of his contract years visiting Bobby Bonilla on his island. And even in the short run, it’s really hard to get effective swings with a bad back.
I agree that J.D. Martinez is killing us at DH, and we don’t have time to coddle him. Maybe we bench him and put in Jesse Winker or Harrison Bader. Winker would be the obvious choice to play every day, and even Bader has had a few big hits recently.
They had him starting at SS yesterday before the game was postponed. I’d prefer DH. Leave Acuna and Iglesias where they’ve been at and let Lindor’s back rest a bit more. I’d save Acuna in CF for spring training next year. I imagine it’s been a big help that he and Iglesias played together a lot in Syracuse early in the year. Plus Taylor’s been swinging the bat well, another one to keep in the lineup.
But I’m not the manager. I’m sure he knows more than me.
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